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How to plate lead

 

Hi,

We are in partnership with a fishing lure manufacturing company, who have come to us with a lead lure, which has a bright "chrome" like finish.They would like us to replicate the finish. We suspect that it is nickel plated. Any suggestions on how to plate lead.

Louise Hamilton
- Port Elizabeth, South Africa

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Nasty stuff to plate. Try Metal Finishing's web site and find their Guidebook. If You do not have the Electroplating Engineering Handbook [on AbeBooks or eBay or Amazon affil links] edited by Durney, I would buy it. Not cheap, but worth every cent. You will extremely probably have to use a fluoboric acid dip or a sulfuric-fluoboric mixture. The coating is very probably electroless nickel.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

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Hello,

I've plated on lead myself(for X-ray applications) We did this as follows;

Alkaline Electrocleaning (cathodic)
Rinse
Fluoboric acid-dip (10% of 48% fluoboric acid)
Rinse
Copper cyanide strike (5 um)
Rinse
Decorative nickel plating bath

It's possible to skip the copper strike but we found better adhesion with copper.

If you ask me electroless nickel is not an option because lead is a poison for such baths.

Sjamp van Esch
- Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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I assumed a good copper undercoat when I said EN. You might not get 10 tank turnovers, but I would expect 6 if it was a tiny contact point.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

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Hi all,

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my plea. Your comments are greatly appreciated and very helpful.

Regards from Sunny South Africa,

Louise Hamilton
- Port Elizabeth, South Africa